Listen live

Video 2:41
Spy says threats are to prop up new President

A former North Korean spy says the threats of war and nuclear attack from Pyongyang are all about propping up the new young President, Kim Jong-Un.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: South Korea has raised its surveillance alert level amid signs North Korea is preparing for a medium-range missile test.

The US and South Korean sources say at least one ballistic missile is fuelled and ready for launch.

As tensions on the Peninsula continue to rise, a former top North Korean spy has spoken out against the totalitarian regime. She's told the ABC's 7.30 program that Kim Jong-un is stepping up his threats to impress his generals and to set up a bargaining chip for foreign aid.

Shaun Hassett has more.

SHAUN HASSETT, REPORTER: Kim Hyon Hui was once among North Korea's top spies, a loyal servant of the "eternal leader" Kim il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-il.

She is the woman who planted a bomb on a Korean airlines flight in 1987, killing 115 people as they travelled from Baghdad to Seoul.

She was caught and initially given the death penalty, but South Korea later pardoned her, saying she was just the brainwashed tool of a brutal regime.

KIM HYON HUI, FORMER NORTH KOREAN SPY (voiceover translation): In North Korea, I was taught that our leader Kim il-Sung was god. You learn to put him before your own parents. You learned from early childhood to say "Thank you, great leader" for everything. And if you say the wrong thing, even if it's only a slip of the tongue, you'd end up in the gulag. North Korea is not a state, it's a cult.

SHAUN HASSETT: Kim Hyon Hui says the current leader of the cult, Kim Jong-un, is ratcheting up the pressure on the Korean Peninsula in order to secure his own position.

In an interview for the ABC's 7.30 program, the former spy told North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy that Kim Jong-un is playing the tough guy to impress his audience at home.

KIM HYON HUI (voiceover translation): Kim Jong-un is young and too inexperienced. He's struggling to gain complete control over the military and win their loyalty. That's why he's doing so many visits to military bases, to firm up support. He's also using the nuclear program as a bargaining chip for aid to keep the public behind him.

SHAUN HASSETT: These days Kim Hyon Hui lives in South Korea, surrounded at all times by six bodyguards on the lookout for North Korean assassins.

The former spy knows she's lucky to be alive, saying she deserved the death penalty.

KIM HYON HUI (voiceover translation): I regret what I did and I am repentant. I feel I should not hide the truth from the family members of those who died. It's my duty to tell them what happened.

SHAUN HASSETT: Kim Hyon Hui says it's horrifying that the world is now being threatened by a third generation of the Kim dynasty.